


Back Soon

by Lokislittlearmy



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Foreshadowing, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, pre-crystal kingdom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-14
Updated: 2018-05-14
Packaged: 2019-05-07 00:09:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14659095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lokislittlearmy/pseuds/Lokislittlearmy
Summary: Taako is out for the day.Magnus and Merle comfort an umbrella.





	Back Soon

Taako leaves before Magnus or Merle woke up. He leaves nothing but a note on the table. Magnus wakes up first and rolls out. He looks at the paper with sleep-crusted eyes. “Make your own breakfast—out to run errands. Back soon!” Below the writing is a recipe for breakfast sandwiches that even the two of them couldn’t fuck up.

Magnus sighs and starts working on the sandwiches. He hardly needs the recipe since it’s so self-explanatory, but he keeps checking it anyway. Merle rolls out of bed a few minutes later at the smell of cooking bacon. Magnus glances over his shoulder. “Taako’s out for the day.” He gestures to the note.

Merle reads the note aloud as he jumps up onto one of the stools. “Back soon,” he finishes, and something clatters onto the hard floors beside Taako’s bed. Merle hops back off the stool, muttering about breakables. 

On the floor lays the Umbra Staff, that red umbrella Taako insists on carrying around everywhere. He must have been in a rush if he forgot it. Merle sighs and reaches out to touch it. Just as he makes contact, a harsh bolt of static rushes up his arm through his vein.

Merle cries out. He reels back, stumbling as he does. He stares at the umbrella like it’s about to strike at him in more than self-defense. That bolt felt like fire running through him, threatening to burn him alive if he didn’t let go. 

“Uh, Magnus, is it possible for an umbrella to hate someone?”

Magnus snorts from the kitchenette. “I don’t think so.” He looks over his shoulder and waves his spatula. “Is that what fell? Just put it on his bed or something.” One of the pieces of bacon splatters. Magnus hisses in pain and swats at his arm with a paper towel.

“I was going to.” Merle reaches out for it again, coming to the same result. It seems even more pissed off. The feeling of fire crawls higher and burns brighter. He shakes out his arm. “It won’t let me touch it.”

Magnus slides the last of the bacon onto the paper towels and shuts the burner off. He rolls his eyes. “What do you mean it won’t let you touch it? It’s an umbrella.” 

He walks over and reaches out for the umbrella. He’s just about ready to toss it onto Taako’s bed and get back to their food. His hand stops just before it wraps around the fabric.

“Do...do you hear that?”

“I hear our food waiting to be eaten.”

“No, I’m serious. Hold your hand just above the umbrella.” Magnus looks over at Merle, and the look in his eyes is dead serious. He’s frozen with his hand almost around the umbrella, shoulders tense and fear deep in his eyes. 

After a second, Merle does the same. He drops to one knee. His hand hovers over the umbrella. He lowers it slowly, like he’s trying not to alarm it. And he hears it. Or, he doesn’t really hear anything so much as he feels it. The insistent thrumming of a panicked heartbeat.

Magnus takes a deep breath. “I’m gonna try talking to it,” he says to Merle. He looks at the umbrella. “Uh, hi. I’m Magnus. Taako’s friend and coworker. This is Merle. Can I try picking you up?” 

The umbrella doesn’t verbally reply, but the panic seems to subside a little. 

Merle retracts his hand and Magnus wraps his own hand around the umbrella. For a second, he anticipates the pain of whatever it did to Merle. Nothing comes. He picks it up.

After a second of deliberation, he sits on Taako’s bed. “Jeez, what’s making you so jittery?”

Merle contemplates for a second. “Separation anxiety? Can magical items even get separation anxiety?”

Magnus shrugs. He holds the umbrella closer to him, real close to cradling it like a person. It puts a smile on Merle’s face as Magnus croons to it. “Hey, it’s okay. Taako said in the note that he’ll be back, okay?” He smiles. “Back soon.” 

At those words, he screams and drops the umbrella. He scrambles away from it, and it falls back onto the floor with the same clatter. “Bad touch! I get it!”

The umbrella is visibly shaking. Merle sits directly in front of it and puts his hands up. “I’m not gonna pick you up or anything. It’s okay, though. He’ll be back.” He hovers his hands over the umbrella like before.

It’s different this time. He can feel some sort of undercurrent beneath the anxiety. He closes his eyes and concentrates, and he can definitely hear something more. Static clings around an indistinct voice. 

He spends a minute or so trying to unsuccessfully clear the static. He gets the idea though. “It’s worried he won’t come back, I think.” He looks up at Magnus. “Maybe one of its previous owners said they’d be back and then didn’t return.”

Magnus is still nursing his arm and trying to rub the burning feeling out of it. He shrugs. “I don’t know. I don’t wanna leave it alone, but I also don’t really want to experience that again.”

Merle looks back to the umbrella. “Okay. We’re not gonna leave you alone. But we do have some hopefully delicious breakfast sandwiches waiting for us in the kitchen. Can we take you out to the kitchen with us?” 

The tingling feeling threatening Merle dissipates. He picks the umbrella up like he’s picking up a bomb. When he’s sure it’s safe, he starts cradling it like Magnus did.

He sets it on the kitchen island before hopping back up. Magnus sets the plates in front of each of them, and they eat with the umbrella between them. 

The umbrella doesn’t feel as anxious now, and the anxiety lessens even more when Magnus takes the note off of the table. 

Halfway through his sandwich, Magnus frowns. “How does an umbrella get separation anxiety?”

Merle shrugs. “It’s magic. It can do whatever it wants. Besides, it rejected me. And you were just over there lookin’ at a door.”

Magnus sets the rest of his sandwich down. “I don’t know. Even when we found it, there was something fishy about it.” He looks to the umbrella with his hands up. “I’m not saying that in a bad way. Just something different and not, y’know, a normal umbrella.” He looks back at Merle. “Don’t you think there’s something off about it?”

The hem of the umbrella seems to flutter a little. They both look straight at it, but it freezes in place. 

Merle shakes his head as if shaking off the illusion. “There’s something off about our entire situation, Magnus. I’m not going to analyze everything that happens in this place.”

The two of them fall into another silence. Merle goes back to his food, but Magnus can’t help but stare at the umbrella. He puts his arms on the table and folds them. “What if we should?”

“What?”

“What if we should analyze stuff more? I mean, we don’t really think about it, but we’re on a floating fake moon. Said fake moon is the basis for a secret organization where you have to drink from the tank of a giant jellyfish to know what’s going on.” Magnus tenses up and leans away. “I mean, where did the Director even get a giant jellyfish like that? Isn’t that freaky?”

Merle blinks at him. He takes the last bite of his sandwich before answering. “Magnus. There’s got to be a whole lot we don’t understand. I don’t intend to dwell on questions I’ll never get the answer to. And neither should you.”

Magnus is about to answer when the door swings open. 

Taako stands in the doorway with bundles of grocery bags. “Alright, bitches, get out of my kitchen. Taako’s got work to do and dishes to make.” He steps closer and puts the bags down on the counter. “What’s the Umbra Staff doing out here?”

“It tried to kill me,” Merle says.

“It has separation anxiety,” Magnus says at the same time.

Taako eyes both of them with wary confusion. “Oooookay.” He picks the Umbra Staff up, and to him it feels like it’s grinning at being with him once more. “I left a note saying I’d be back soon, isn’t that-” He drops the umbrella with a yell. “What the fuck?”

Magnus and Merle both start talking at the same time again. 

Taako groans. “Okay, I get it. Chill. It’s done this to me before. It’s got problems from whoever owned it last. Probably the same person that made it sentient.” He picks it up again and brushes dust from it. “Problem words. I’ll keep that little phrase in mind.”

Taako makes a shooing motion. “Now, out of my kitchen. I have frozens I need to organize.”

The two slink away to the living area. As he sits on the couch, Magnus turns to watch the kitchen. 

Taako sets the Umbra Staff on the island and goes about his work, brushing by the umbrella occasionally. Once he’s finished, he holds the umbrella like Magnus and Merle had both automatically drifted to. 

Magnus can’t hear the words he’s muttering, so he turns around. Probably better to give him a little privacy anyway.

When Taako picks the umbrella up, a jolt goes through him. It’s not of fire, but simply of warmth. It’s a beckoning call and a feeling of longing. 

Taako sighs. “Chill. I’m right here. I didn’t think you’d get so offended.” Despite his words, he’s stroking the fabric as if he’s petting at somebody’s hair. It’s a familiar motion, he thinks. He brushes the notion away. 

Better to keep questions locked away for now.

**Author's Note:**

> Finals finished last week and I have a lot of ideas. I wrote this at about two in the morning last night.
> 
> Questions? Comments? My tumblr is littlelionkai <3


End file.
